Stray Thought
by Yukai yami
Summary: After his life falls into a steady routine, Lest minds wanders to the people of Selphia and a question he doesn't know the answer to... (Rune Factory 4 Arc 3 Spoilers)


If Lest had to guess, the catalyst had been Sinceriry General Store and the Tiny Bandage Clinic.

It just felt so nice to have a fertilizer bin alongside a stone and lumber box in every field, you know? No longer did he have to fight with a messy backpack (surely it was a health hazard) carrying twenty pieces of weed and five pieces of lumber all at once anymore. It had been too good not to do, even if he had to do the same song and dance of buying an item and carrying it across Selphia on foot over and over again... Why the airship didn't let him have "heavy cargo", he'd never know. The worst had been the road to the Autumn field, with its thin roads filled with cute palm cats that could literally send him flying with a tap of their paws (apparently they loved to follow a moving target, if the way their eyes shined with malice said anything). Not to mention the incredibly poisonous mushrooms and that one road filled with crystals he just HAD to smash open and see if he'd score another Rune Crystal... but Lest was getting slightly off topic.

So yeah. Field furniture alongside the increasingly better quality of seeds he could buy, and understandably he paid Sincerity General Store a fair amount of visits.

Not to mention, anyone who had been in Selphia for more than half an hour could tell you that Lest _loved_ a good fight. He constantly upgraded his weapons and spells; no item was good enough if he had a say in it. Even food able to fully close his wounds wouldn't remain unused in his backpack for long (alongside the weeds and lumber. See what he meant? It just wasn't healthy!). Lest's idea of "a day off" was making ginormous crops to feed to boss monsters if only so they'd join his cause in the hopes of making future battles all the more exciting.

Sadly, all the cooking skill and Steamed Gyoza and Royal Curry in the world aren't worth much if you're knocked out before you can eat them...

So yes, he paid more than a healthy number of visits to the Tiny Bandage Clinic on the back of a not-yet-as exhausted pet activating his Escape spell _for_ him. Yes, he'd be more careful, Jones. No, he wouldn't stay for dinner this time, Nancy. Yes, Dolce liking hugs but denying it was cute, Pico. Yes, he'd ignore Pico and would be fine walking home from there, Dolce...

Nancy truly was an angel. He knew Jones was just doing his job by patching him up and charging for it unlike his wife, but the bills he racked up under _his_ care were enough to send Dolce and future grandchildren to university many times over...

Again, he kept getting carried away with his train of thought, but that was also part of the main problem.

You see, you spend too much time in a place you're familiar with alongside your ever changing thoughts and you start thinking things you didn't before. Maybe around visit number twenty five to the store that month and patch-up job number four that week, Lest's thoughts wandered to Blossom and Doug, or the relationship between Dolce and Pico with Jones and Nancy. He was sure if he wasn't adamant in becoming the best chef he could be for his pets and paid more visits to Porcoline's kitchen, thoughts about Meg and Porco would've come up, as well. Arthur and Dylas more than likely would've been included.

If he took a page from Doug's book and thought less humbly of himself, he'd concede that he was of average looks compared to normal men his age. Maybe even somewhat handsome? Maybe he hadn't had much of a green thumb starting out, and his skills with... frankly, _anything..._ had been horrible in his first days in Selphia, but he was a very fast learner. It had only been around half a decade, but his sleeping skill had been on par with Clorica's, or so she said. He'd walked enough times over Selphia's fields and dungeons to impress the locals living there all their lives. One of his earliest memories was of him wielding and protecting himself with a sword and surviving a humongous fall, something he was sure wasn't the earliest memory of average people. Not to mention, he had been made prince of Selphia, and even ignoring the implications of field labor that accompanied the position, that wasn't a title to scoff at. He had gone all throughout the land, saved four of his now best friends who had slumbered for eons, stopped an evil empire from sending the realm and maybe the world into chaos and tyranny, and saved his best friend who just so happened to be one of the four Divine Dragons... even if she had the temper of a toddler when she was denied her pancakes. Heck, he painstakingly made Selphia itself into a turistical hotspot that averaged more than hundreds of tourists daily! He had spent quite a number of years in Selphia (his whole life, he'd internally joke sometimes). More likely than not, he'd marry, have children, and settle down there for the rest of his days.

He tried his best to be as kind and formal as possible, even if his friends got a pass to his snarky side every now and then. Bado would still get irritated lectures from Lest with his sales pitch, Lest would berate Doug for taking advantage of Vishnal's naivety, he basically became a pro at declining Porcoline's numerous marriage proposals, and he could shoot banter with the teasing master that was Leon.

And yeah, his thoughts tended to wonder pretty much every second of every day that wasn't spent talking to friends, tourists or his pets, and once again, his thoughts about Doug and Blossom and Jones and Dolce and Nancy, and yes add in there Porco and Meg as well, came back again and... well... Yeah, his thoughts wandered all over the place.

Doug and Blossom (And the Jones and everyone at Porco's he added)... They weren't related by blood, but they were the photo-perfect picture of what family members should be like.

He seldomly visited Bell Bath And Beyond when both Xiao Pai and Lin Fa were working simultaneously, but he'd seen the mother and daughter duo and they were also a great pair.

You couldn't go a week without Forte worrying about something that happened with Kiel or Kiel talking about what a great sister he had.

Volkanon wasn't related by blood to either Clorica nor Vishnal, but they way he taught them was not unlike a father figure, Lest would guess.

And Amber simply loved following Illuminata's footsteps, as if she was Ellie's true little sister.

And Leon treated everyone like a teasing older brother and many people looked up to him for advice or just a fun chat.

And Lest, visiting the store and greeting Blossom once more and making small talk as his order was filled in, noticed. The warm way Blossom would complain about Doug being lazy, yet compliment how he'd bashfuly try to help out without anyone noticing. Or some other Tuesday or Thursday were Doug was trying to convince Lest to buy more than he needed just to help out Blossom more, even if he hid it as being lazy and doing less sales, a title he wore with great pride. And as Lest listened, he noticed with Doug as well.

And Lest, waking up in the second bed from the door, staring at that familiar wooden ceiling he had grown accustomed to as either Jones or Nancy noticed him regaining consciousness... He noticed with them, as well. How Nancy would make small talk about the dishes Dolce loved but wouldn't admit she liked (cakes and hot chocolates), or how Jones would tell how Nancy laughed more since Dolce and Pico joined and how 'happy' was too small a word to describe the joy he felt as well...

And it all brought thoughts that danced at the edge of Lest's mind but never quite left once their number was up.

Those thoughts had been so slowly distracting, bouncing back and forth in his head, one day he had forgone his daily habit of taking a bath at night and decide to change up his routine and have an early-morning dip. Surely the sun-filled sky view from the bath window would be a sight to behold, and it'd be a nice way to relax. He had entered Bell Bath and Beyond to be greeted by both mother and daughter, working the early morning shift. Lest joined their conversation— apparently Lin Fa's housband had sent them a letter that miraculously reached them despite him not knowing where he was— and waited until it was officially open house. The young prince got a front row seat to Lin Fa's infamous mistakes; in the hustle and bustle of opening shop, Lin Fa forgot one of her costumer's orders and was later thanked by said customer who revealed to be on a hard-to-keep diet. Xiao Pai just smiled that her mama was amazing as always mere seconds before she tripped on pure air and broke her first five plates of that day. Lin Fa, of course, had appeared at her side less than a second later with a helping hand and a smile. The sight was by all means normal, but it just made Lest's previous thoughts grow all the more loud. He completely ignored the bath's window as he sunk into the hot waters with his thoughts. He had spent his bath doing all but relaxing.

Mid-soak, he crossed paths with Leon, and both decided to visit Arthur together. Leon had phrased it as "Lest accompanying him to hand in a secret love letter", and Lest off-handedly realized he was getting too used to Leon's peculiar love for teasing and misunderstandings. After the bath, a visit to Arthur's office later showed a scene of Meg scolding Porco for trying to eat the very breakfast he had made for Arthur, only for Dylas to have burned his hand trying to keep the hot plate of food away. It was a funny sight that passed as 'normal' in Selphia, but it only added fuel to the thoughts inside Lest's mind.

A trip to Carnations' for seeds, and he heard Amber talk to a nearly sleeping Clorica about Ellie's latest case of the missing hat that was lost in her closet. A stop by Blacksmith's Meander to see Bado's bargains and Lest saw one of Forte's infamous lectures about Bado's lack of drive for doing real work that didn't include get-rich-quick schemes. Incidentally, Kiel talked to Lest outside about Bado's latest item: a sword that brights strength to whoever wields it. Or a 'normal sword'.

On his way back towards one of his main fields in the castle, Lest took a shortcut through the butler's quarters and caught sight of Vishnal attempting to make a cup of Relax Tea. Clorica, nearly sleeping, took a tiny yet cautious sip before wincing about the unusually huge amounts of sugar in the drink, her eyes looking the most awake they had been in months. Volkanon deemed the cup inedible, sending him into a lengthy lecture about the proper way to make and serve beverages. A lecture Vishnal could recite by memory, but still had problems following in the kitchen while Clorica made culinary masterpieces in her sleep, literally.

Even as Lest brushed his newest pet, a typhon demon (not typhoon as he originally thought) he tamed and called Breeze, images of all of Selphia's townspeople flashed through Lest's mind, and he couldn't help but fall into a sour mood. The prince didn't even notice he had been stuck in his thoughts until Gold, the Silver Wolf he found starving in Sech Territory and befriended, jumped on him and licked his face as it tended to do when it played with Lest. Nonetheless, his musings returned once he finished overseeing his pets water the crops and break down the stones and branches they found.

Everyone had someone they relied on. The relationship between family members, or companions that acted like family, amongst Selphians was easy to see. Why had Lest never noticed before?

And sure, it was a good thing. It was a _great_ thing! But...

And yes, even Venti was like a little-big sister to him, but...

His thoughts went back to his list of attributes and characteristics.

He wasn't a _bad_ person... right? He wasn't someone you'd try your hardest to avoid or forget, right?

But it had been more than five years already since he fell from the sky and his life there started... His name traveled far and wide when he fought and won against Ethelberd and brought back Venti from what was basically the afterlife in Rune Prana, where he learned he came from a long line of Earthmates creating the Rune spheres to save the guardians and Venti... So why?

Leon had once asked him if he still had childhood friends. When Lest answered that he didn't remember, Leon assured him that everyone in Selphia was now his childhood friend, but...

...

Why hadn't friends or family members from before he lost his memories reach out to him yet, either before or after tales of the Rune Spheres and Ventuswill spread through Selphia?

He hadn't been a _bad_ person, right? He had to have had family or friends before he lost his memories, right?

...Right?

So why hadn't anyone looked for him?

And he visited the clinic and the store and the castle and the town as he noticed the love others had that he couldn't call his own.

Why didn't Lest have a family?

Even years later, after braving heaven and hell alongside the giant family that was Selphia, Lest felt like an outsider.


End file.
